Description
Composed of veterans, agema - or guards - were elite units within Hellenic and Successor armies. They first appeared under Alexander the Great, where elitism was actively encouraged and rewarded, marking the move from citizen soldiers, loyal to the state, to professional armies, loyal to their general. Alexander’s agema probably developed from the ranks of his Companions, but as his campaigns continued successfully more units of veterans naturally emerged. Known as hypaspists, they probably fought in the hoplite style, but used a smaller hoplon than their predecessors. Their role was to protect the vulnerable flanks of the pike phalanxes and support the cavalry. Such units could have long careers, the famed silver shields, for instance, fought as mercenaries first for Eumenes and then Antigonus after Alexander’s death, also being used as the blueprint for the later Seleucid Silver Shields. Highly valued for their experience, many Silver Shields continued fighting well into their sixties. Later agema diversified, and the term came to be used for many elite or veteran hypaspist, peltast or cavalry units during the period. These units often bore battle honours or nicknames celebrating their victories; at the siege of Oaeneum in 169BC a vanguard of peltasts, the ‘nicatores’, or ‘conquerors’, stormed the walls.
